My mother was forced to join the union. Money goes to her too and she sent contributions to conservative groups.

Plus the Japanese government supports Whale hunting which I am against.

It’s still deficient in several ways though; the upholstery is stock and in good shape so I need some of that saddleblanket stuff. The wheels and tires all match. It doensn’t really have any visible rust through spots; there are some but you still have to look for them.

I does have the obligatory gun rack and a Dale Earnhardt “3″ decal in the back window. I also finally replaced my McCain/Palin sticker with a “Don’t Tread on Me” sticker. And, it has a flourescent green “Hootchie” fishing lure on the top of the antenna (looks like a green squid – hook pulled out of this one so I siliconed it on top of the antenna, works better than those little orange balls or a piece of string.)

Had a Chevy Silverado (traded the F-150 in on it) and we only have it for about 75,000 miles before my wife made me trade it away… Seems the computer in it kept randomly losing its mind and readjusted all the interior seat settings, crushing her into the dash at bad times (like driving down the highway at 75 mph)… She won’t have anither GM vehicle: only Fords or Hondas… so I won’t either….

Hurray for old and ugly!

So, last December I was driving down the highway minding my own business and listening to Rush. It was pretty icy, but I had studs so I was doing 55 or maybe a little more. I see a blue truck coming up fast in the left lane and have barely time to start to swerve as he loses it, starts fish-tailing and hits me just at the rear of the cab so hard that his right front wheel goes up and over my left rear wheel crushing the bed of my truck. He hit me hard enough that I went around two and a half times before I got it hauled down. Kept it in the road, though, aging reflexes aren’t all gone. He was new to town, still had his Lower 48 plates, and obviously thought that his 4WD meant you could go like a bat out of Hell on icy roads.

Anyway, with repair prices here, any damage to a vehicle that age will total it. So, the book on it was $34-3600. The repair bill was $3400. The guy’s insurance company offered me $3200 and I kept the salvage rights. I said deal and took my trusty hammar to it and beat the side out so it cleared the wheel and it’s still going strong. Uglier ‘n Hell now, but it still hauls trash and crab pots pretty well and it has a killer stereo. My mechanic says I should just take the stereo out and junk it or I’m going to be going down the road one day and suddenly find myself bouncing along the road on my butt surrounded by a cloud of rust. I think I’ll keep it a while longer though because I like the image.

My SRT can whoop any foreign car. Any one who has gone to the free track experience that you get with a SRT will see that they are strong cars that can take a beating.

Secondly, sometimes its the user. It amazes me how many ppl dont change the oil, dont warm the car up, dont check fluids and wonder why the thing has an issue.

I would like the new challenger, specifically the 6.1. Obama is trying to get us all into tin cans and I refuse.

I think its silly to buy a from a foreign company. The money goes out of the country. And I dont think all the money goes to the UAW..there is more involved then putting a car together.

On a personal note, my mother was a school teacher for 50 years and was forced to join the union. She hated it and what they stood for but her desire to teach was too great to stop her. Her dues went to the democratic party. She personally donated to the republican party. She was not the only one who did this at her school.

My wife’s Sebring is mostly a Mitubishi product and has been a good car. She’s had a little trouble with it, but she’s hard on machinery so I don’t know how much is her and how much is the car.

That said, I won’t buy another one or a GM either. Both brands are doomed to be nothing more than fronts for whatever flight of fancy the greenies are pushing and we’ll subsidize them until we can restore a legitimate government to this Country and just do away with them. Maybe something good will rise from the ashes, though the British auto industry never really recovered from nationalization.

Here are the JD Power ratings for my ’06 Fusion:

http://www.jdpower.com/autos/Ford/Fusion/2006/Sedan/ratings

Fords are NOT crap.

_ JP

My children are in a charter school. I’ll admit they don’t get as much gingerbread, (i.e. football, soccer, lacrosse, etc.,) but they do get a great foundation in the academics, learn to actually think rather than just get opinions and information dumped into their brains, and the teachers treat my children as individuals and show excitement for their job.

Some charter schools are union, but the bulk aren’t. I honestly believe that the biggest advantage the charter schools have is the ability to hire and fire teachers as needed.

Not saying this is the right kind or not, just saying you can.